


We keep this love in a photograph

by 365paperdolls



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Background characters - Freeform, Blanket Permission, Episode Tag, F/F, Gideon - Freeform, gary green - Freeform, nate heywood - Freeform, post 4x04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-23 21:34:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16626815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/365paperdolls/pseuds/365paperdolls
Summary: When Ava returns to the Time Bureau after the camp mission she finds three surprise additions to her desk.





	We keep this love in a photograph

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Ed Sheeran's song photograph. Set after 4x04.

Ava feels relaxed when she returns to the Time Bureau the day after the camp mission. Camp was fun, some of the time, but she felt more comfortable in her natural environment, indoors in her office, wearing her suit and being the boss. She feels relieved when she enters to find that Nate and Gary hadn’t destroyed the place and the walls were free from pre-historic plant goo. Everything seemed to be in order. It all seems ok until she reaches her desk. 

“Gary!” She calls out.

He is at her side almost instantly. 

“Yes Director Sharpe, welcome back by the way, I hope you had a good day off.”

“I did it was magical. Has someone been rearranging my desk?”

“Nate put some paperwork on there yesterday but apart from that no one has gone near it.” He explains. 

“Thank you Gary, you can go now.” He scurries away.

She notices Nate lurking in the shadows and gestures for him to come over. He walks over with a mischievous look on his face.

“Good morning Director.” He greets her. 

“Did you rearrange my desk?” 

“Maybe. Have you sat down at your desk yet?”

“No.” She had been so preoccupied by finding out who the culprit was she hadn’t really looked at all the changes. She knew that some of the decorations and stationary have been drastically moved but had failed to notice the multiple small photo frames that had mysteriously appeared.

Nate gestures for her to go over to the other side of the desk. She does and then slowly sits down on the chair. There are five photo frames in total: the first two were already there, a small one of her two actor ‘parents’ pushed to the back and a medium sized one of Sara. The other three hadn’t been there when she left for camp. The first one was of Gary and Nate with goofy grins on their faces. The background and the fact that they were wearing the same clothes they were now suggested that it had been taken in the office earlier that day. The second was of all the Legends on the Waverider dressed in an array of costumes from different time periods. Notably, Sara is in the centre wearing the same clothes as she had on their Viking mission, the first mission she had been on with the Legends. The others wore everything from medieval to the 80’s. 

Ava picks up the final photo and examines it carefully. It wasn’t as good quality as the others which was ironic because it was only taken yesterday.

 

_12 hours earlier_

“Look what I found in Alexis’ bag.” Sara whispers as they walk in the woods after defeating the shtriga. She pulls a disposable Kodak camera out of her pocket and hands it to Ava. 

Ava turns the yellow box over a few times over in her hands, examining it. 

“Is this a camera?”

“Yes, let’s take a picture.” She leads Ava over to the lake. 

Sara then takes the camera back from Ava, turns it around and then lifts it up.

“That doesn’t have an inside camera.”

“No, we are just going to have to do our best. Don’t worry I used to be the best at using these cameras.” She wobbles it around a bit and squints. 

“There.” She attempts to steady her hand and then wraps her free hand around Ava. 

“Say cheese.” 

Ava rolls her eyes at her.

“Where am I looking?”

“At the middle of the camera.”

Sara pushes the button causing the camera to click.

“Done, now hopefully it was bright enough. When I’m back on the Waverider I’ll see if Gideon can develop these. It’s a bit dark but hopefully the moonlight should have created enough light.”

Present day

Ava clutches the photo close to her chest, cherishing the memory for a couple of minutes. When she is interrupted by her phone ringing. She carefully puts the photo down on the middle of the desk. 

She doesn’t recognise the number.

“Hello, Director Sharpe speaking. ” 

“Hi Director Sharpe I am ringing on behalf of Captain Lance.” Gideon says.

“Hi Gideon.”

“Aves hey!” The voice changes to Sara’s.

“Sara?”

“Sorry I just wanted to check that Gideon can ring you in case she ever needs to. Now are you at work?”

“Yes I am.”

“Have you seen my present yet?”

“This photo of Nate and Gary it is amazing you shouldn’t have.” She says sarcastically.

“Wait, Nate and Gary? I didn’t give you a photo of Nate and Gary, just the photo of the team and that other photo we took yesterday.”

“Ah yes that one, it’s really dark and blurry, is it of a cat or the Eiffel tower?”

Sara laughs on the other side of the phone. 

“You’re right it’s a cat, I’d thought you’d really like it.”

“I do, it’s amazing, I’m going to keep it on my desk, so that I can always look at this cat and remember fondly how much this cat means to me.” She replies sarcastically. 

“It’s a really good cat.” Sara agrees.

“In all seriousness Sara thank you for making me take this photo and giving it to me.”

“I thought you needed one fuzzy childhood photo.”

“Also Sara?”

“Yes.”

“You kept the photo of those actors on my desk why?”

“Because that’s your decision to make about when or if ever you take that photo on your desk, I just gave you the other two to remind you that you aren’t alone, you have a family and none of us are normal.”

“Thank you my love. But seriously you can admit to having given me the picture of Nate and Gary.”

As she continues to talk to Sara, she simultaneously picks up the photo in question and places it in the bin, she could sense that it was time to let go of it and her artificial past.

“No Aves, I didn’t give you that photo I’m not kidding. I asked Nate to place the others on your desk, he must have decided he wanted to give you a photo too.”

“Ok, I’ll talk to him about that later. I don’t have meetings for a while, are you busy?”

“ Charlie is finally cooperating and telling us stuff, but she’s opening up more to Zari and Mick more anyways so I could be round there in….”

Ava hears a breach open behind her.

“About now.”

“Miss me that much?” 

Sara walks towards Ava but at the last second dodges her and continues towards Ava’s desk and picks up one of the photographs.

“This is an incredible sentimental photo, can I have a copy of this?”

It takes a second for Ava to figure out that Sara isn’t talking about the photo of them but rather the picture of Nate and Gary.

“Take it.” 

“Oh don’t worry I have some plans for this don’t worry, but they can wait until later.” Sara says mischievously. She puts the photo down on the desk and picks up the one of her and Ava as kids.

“But this one would have to be my favourite.”

“Mine to.”

“Where should I put it?”

Ava frantically pushes everything on her desk aside making room on the centre back of it. Sara then places it down carefully before stepping back to admire it. She leans her head on Ava’s shoulder.

“Perfect, now every time you do paperwork you will remember falling into a lake after being pranked by a group of kids.” 

Ava turns to look at Sara lovingly.

“That’s not what I’ll remember.”

The photo itself is slightly awkward and half of her face is cut off due to Sara having to estimate where the frame was when she turned the camera around. But every time she looked at it on the days, weeks and years yet to come it always reminded her of her one true childhood memory and how grateful she was to spend it with Sara.

**Author's Note:**

> There is a tumblr post about a similar idea here: https://deepseanb.tumblr.com


End file.
